Today's (In)action: A Short Draw in the Women's World Championship, and Fedoseev Wins Aeroflot
Not much happened today in the final rounds of the Women's World Championship and the Aeroflot Open. The final classical game of the former event was drawn in 24 moves, so Anna Muzychuk and Zhongyi Tan will finish things off in a rapid (and if necessary, blitz) playoff tomorrow.
As for Aeroflot, Nikita Vitiugov gave up trying to leapfrog Vladimir Fedoseev pretty quickly, agreeing to a draw with White in just 20 moves. It's easy to criticize his decision, but his moves were reasonable and in the final position the following line looks forced: 20...Rxd4 21.Qxd4 Qxd4 22.Rxd4 Bxa3 23.Ra4 Bd3 24.Rb3 Bc2 25.Rbxa3 Bxa4 26.Rxa4 and then most likely 26...Rd8, when Black's active rook makes up for White's (about to be) passed a-pawn. Evgeny Najer also failed to win (with Black against Yu Yangyi), so Fedoseev took clear first with 7/9, half a point ahead of Vitiugov, Najer, and Vladislav Kovalev, who defeated Denis Khismatullin with the black pieces in a strange game.
Reader Comments (2)
If Vitiugov (and Najer) can be criticized, then for their short draw (Najer with white) in round 7 - 11 moves, not even bothering to develop all of their pieces. Thus Caissa might endorse that Fedoseev (who didn't have short draws but the - for him - perfectly understandable one in the last round) finished ahead of Najer and Vitiugov.
[DM: I definitely wasn't criticizing Najer; as for Vitiugov my point was that the prima facie criticism of the game's brevity was undermined by the situation on the board after the pending forced line.]
Well, we are assured of a Chinese women's world championship match with the upcoming Zhongyi Tan Wenjun Ju match.
Wiil the Chinese also win the men's WCC in say in five to ten years?
[DM: Right you are on the first matter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_World_Chess_Championship_2018. As for the second, who knows? Within five years I think their best chances are with Ding Liren and Wei Yi, though the latter may be too young. But within 10 years, almost anything is possible. As for the Chinese women, they've held the title for most of the last 26 years - their successes are nothing new.]